Bus Strikes, Late Night Visitors, and Lots of time with the children

Thursday

Today was an emotional rollercoaster. We forced ourselves out of bed at 6 am to prepare for our morning class. We took a songtheaw to work. I only had three people in my first class because of the bus strike. Some of my students were unable to make it to work. Private bus operators started their protest today because of the inability to increase their bus fares. The companies cannot raise their fares despite losses due to the increase in oil, gas and rice. In the past few weeks we have witnessed increasing prices both at the pumps as well as on everyday things such as on our ride to work. The price of the songtheaw went up from 5 baht to 7 baht. This does not seem like a huge jump, but think of all of those people who commute every day to work and only make THB 8000 a month.

Immediately after class Misty and I were back home in bed, ready to sleep for the rest of the morning. We took a motorbike home and were in bed within 10 minutes of my class being over.

We all woke up around noon (SiJie included) and took a taxi to Carrefour. I should mention that although private buses are no longer running, government buses are still continuing on with their regular routes. However, most of the main routes are operated by private companies. We had lunch at Carrefour and picked up a few groceries and walked to Mercy.

I visited Momma this afternoon, and she told me that she is leaving tomorrow. However, she is leaving around 9 am, which is when we will be on the milk run. That meant that we would have to say goodbye to her tonight, not something I was prepared for. I hung around the AIDS hospice until my class. I chatted with the patients and visited the ones in bed. Frank was all smiles today. I fed one of the women her supper. She especially loved it when I made airplane sounds as I brought the spoon towards her face.

Off to class I went. One of my students, the niece from P.Ning showed up unexpected. I did not think she was coming today so I was unprepared. I ended up teaching her and Lek at the same time, which made for a challenging class as she is about 4 or 5 years old and Lek is 16.

During class I asked if Pleaw was enjoying her school. “School fun?” She pointed to her teeth and gave me a thumbs down. Apparently fun is the Thai word for teeth, and she pointed down because her teeth are broken.

After class Boong came with us to the AIDS hospice to say goodbye to Momma. It was a very emotional goodbye, and sadly it is the first of many in the next month. I am really going to miss her.

We went outside to wait for the songtheaw again, and almost got wet in the downpour. Standing under an umbrella from one of the street vendors we looked up to see some of the Mercy 6 children waving to us. Behind them all was Boong, inviting us to come and have dinner with them. Since it did not look like the rain was going to stop anytime soon we decided to join them. Supper was made up of some kind of soup, chicken and rice. It was so cute to see all of the children in their pj’s sitting around little tables eating. Some of the younger children were very excited to have us there and would not sit down and eat their food. It was a fun experience, and we plan on eating with them more often.

When we arrived back at Soi 40, the house parents were having a birthday party for 2 of the house parents themselves. Lots of food and beer went around. The children came down to have a piece of cake. Misty and I really had a good laugh seeing all of the children on their best behavior as there was a visitor there. Folk had a chocolate cake, and he showed it to me and said “Choc-o-late.” I replied back “Yes, chocolate.” Folk then told everyone in Thai; “Jodie knows how to pronounce chocolate!”

After the cake we did our tooth brushing routine and then put the boys to bed. Misty and I relaxed in our room until we were ready for bed. When I came back into the room after leaving for a few minutes, she was hiding someone under the blankets in our bed. I looked but it was too small to be SiJie and was not Ja. All of a sudden Folk poked his head out. It was around 10:30pm, and he was supposed to have been in bed. He was still wearing his clothes, and obviously no one was checking on them as all of the house parents were downstairs celebrating. We had a nice chat and then listened to some music and danced and jumped on the bed. Finally we sent him back to his room. I went to bring him back but as we tiptoed out he motioned for me to go back in the room. I think he probably could have said he was using the washroom beside our room, but if I was with him he would be caught not in bed. I turned around to watch him scurry back, shut off the light and go back to the boys’ room.

Since it was raining and the street was nearly a river, I figured I should probably take our laundry in too. To get to the laundry area outside you must go through where the boys sleep. I walked in and Gelong was sitting up in his bed, while everyone else was sleeping. He saw me and then quickly lay down as if he was sleeping too. Outside I was grabbing some of the towels and I turned around and there was Folk! In his hands he had some more of my clothes. That little bugger scared me. I sent him back off to bed.